Qiang language, referred as Rma (尔玛) or Rme by its speakers, is a

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

language cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 140,000 people in north-central

Sichuan Province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Qiang consists of: *

Northern Qiang language Northern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch, more specifically falling under the Tibeto-Burman family. It is spoken by approximately 60,000 people in East Tibet, and in north-central Sichuan Province, China. Unlike its clo ...

(a non-tonal language) *

Southern Qiang language Southern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 81,300 people along the Minjiang () river in Sichuan Province, China. Southern Qiang dialects preserve archaic pronoun flexions, while they have disappea ...

(a tonal language)

Writing system

In 2017, the Rma script, invented by Wei Jiuqiao (), was officially finalized and has been accepted by many Qiang people as the first ever official writing system for their language. There is no published information regarding to whether the script is compatible for both the

and the

or if it is only compatible for one of the languages. The writing system has also been given a preliminary proposal to encode it to the Universal Character Set of Unicode.

Consonants

Vowels

Classification

Sims (2016) gives the following classification for the "Qiangish" (or "Rma") languages, which include Northern Qiang and

Southern Qiang Southern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 81,300 people along the Minjiang () river in Sichuan Province, China. Southern Qiang dialects preserve archaic pronoun flexions, while they have disappe ...

. Individual dialects are highlighted in ''italics''. ;Qiangish * Northern Qiang ('upstream' *nu- innovation group) **NW Heishui: ''Luhua'' 芦花镇 **Central Heishui ***''Qinglang'' 晴朗乡 ***''Zhawo'' 扎窝乡 ***''Ciba'' 慈坝乡 ***''Shuangliusuo'' 双溜索乡 ***

uvular Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not prov ...

V's innovation group: ''Zhimulin'' 知木林乡, ''Hongyan'' 红岩乡, ''Mawo'' 麻窝乡 **SE Heishui: ''Luoduo'' 洛多乡, ''Longba'' 龙坝乡, ''Musu'' 木苏乡, ''Shidiaolou'' 石碉楼乡 **North Maoxian: ''Taiping'' 太平乡, ''Songpinggou'' 松坪沟乡 **South

Songpan Songpan; former Songzhou, is a county of northwestern Sichuan province, China, and is one of the 13 counties administered by the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. It has an area of , and a population of approximately 68,000 composed o ...

: ''Xiaoxing'' 小姓乡, ''Zhenjiangguan'' 镇江关乡, ''Zhenping'' 镇坪乡 **West Maoxian / South Heishui: ''Weigu'' 维古乡, ''Waboliangzi'' 瓦钵乡梁子, ''Se'ergu'' 色尔古镇, ''Ekou'', ''Weicheng'' 维城乡, ''Ronghong'', ''Chibusu'', ''Qugu'' 曲谷乡 asis for written language ''Wadi'' 洼底乡, ''Baixi'' 白溪乡, ''Huilong'' 回龙乡, ''Sanlong'' 三龙乡 **Central Maoxian: ''Heihu'' 黑虎乡 **SE Maoxian (reflexive marker innovation): ''Goukou'' 沟口乡, ''Yonghe'' 永和乡 *

(perfective agreement suffixes innovation group) **'inward' *ji innovation subgroup ***North

Wenchuan Wenchuan County is a county in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, People's Republic of China. The county has an area of , and a population of 100,771 as of 2010. Wolong National Nature Reserve is a protected area located i ...

: ''Longxi'' 龙溪乡 ***South

: ''Miansi'' 绵虒镇 **'downward' *ɚ innovation subgroup ***Western Lixian: ''Puxi'' 蒲溪乡, ''Xuecheng'' 薛城镇, ''Muka'' 木卡乡, ''Jiuzi'' 九子村 ***Eastern Lixian: ''Taoping'' 桃坪乡, ''Tonghua'' 通化乡

Reconstruction

Sims (2017) reconstructs tones for Proto-Rma (alternatively called Proto-Qiangish), proposing that the lack of tones in Northern Qiang is due to Tibetan influence. High tones and low tones are reconstructed for Proto-Rma, as well as for Proto- Prinmi.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Qiang Language Qiangic languages Qiang people